


Getting to Know: Katherine Howard

by ExhaustedSunflower



Series: There is a reason for every little thing we do [2]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25094005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExhaustedSunflower/pseuds/ExhaustedSunflower
Summary: The queens come together to help Kitty as she struggles with her own trauma. They find that caring is not as hard as they initially thought it would be.
Series: There is a reason for every little thing we do [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814929
Comments: 35
Kudos: 98





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> So there’s a reference to non con in the dream but its pretty minor. If you feel it might be triggering let me know and ill tag it. It doesn’t mention anything that’s happened directly but we all know the symbolism.

Normally, when Kitty has a nightmare, she wakes up terrified. There’s a scream and depending on what the content of the dream was, she might keep screaming. Tonight she keeps screaming.

_ There are hands on her shoulders. Tears on her cheeks. She’s being pulled toward a door. She has no idea what’s behind that door but she knows she can’t let them take her there. Them? There’s now hands on her back, pushing her forward. When did they get there? She starts to push back, and when that doesn’t work she thrashes. She fights and the more she fights the more hands join on her body. Until she’s covered with wandering hands and the only place that’s not covered is her eyes. The hands squeeze and they burn and she screeches in pain. Her tears are now falling harder and she struggles to breathe, her screams don’t stop, increasing in volume. _

_ The door is getting closer, but she should have reached it by now. She focuses back in on the door. What color is it? She can’t tell; it's cracked open now. Just a sliver, she still can’t see in the door, still has no idea what to expect. Will it be a bed? Where these wandering and squeezing hands can violate her even further? It could be a scaffold, the one she lost her head on. The one that haunts not only her dreams but her thoughts as well. Every time she looks in the mirror or she sits in the quiet for too long, when her thoughts will attack her until she’s a crying mess all on her own. Maybe it's the other queens. All angry and cold, except instead of fighting each other they’ve turned their fire towards her. All she knows is that the feeling of panic gets worse with every fitful step. _

_ She, and the hands, have all reached the door now. Still screaming and fighting against the hands, she lets out the most violent screech yet. The door is opening and she closes her eyes, not wanting to see what horrors await her.  _

When she opens her eyes again she’s back in her bed and surrounded by people. Immediately she backs herself against the headboard. Eyes wide in terror she continues to scream.

Normally, when Kitty has a nightmare, she wakes up terrified. She screams, and might keep screaming. And normally, when Kitty has a nightmare, she wakes up in her bedroom,  _ alone.  _ Cathy might come join her after a bit, seeing as the woman’s bed was directly on the opposite side of the wall as Kitty’s. Catalina will ask her if she slept well at breakfast as a subtle way of asking if she is okay. Anna gives her more attention than usual. Anne gives her gentle smiles and doesn’t start her usual chaos until later on as a way to give her a quiet morning. Jane gives her extra breakfast. But she always wakes up to an empty room. Tonight is different because she wakes up to a room full of people. And her screams are louder, she screams with such force it hurts.

The queens around her, for their part, are also terrified. They’d all known she’d be the first to need their support once they made the agreement to help each other. Kitty’s lucky if she  _ doesn’t  _ wake up screaming. That doesn’t mean they were prepared for it in the slightest. Cathy is the first to move, she makes everybody move back. Then she slowly turns to Kitty. The girl is still screaming and cowering against her headboard. Her hands are now clawing all over herself. As if she’s trying to scratch away something unseen to the rest of the room.

“Kitty,” She tries to get the girl’s attention. There’s no reply except the ever present screams of terror, no sign she’d even heard over them.

“Kitty!” She says louder, the crying girl flinches at the volume and Cathy decides to try something else. 

Slowly, so as not to frighten her more, she moves to the edge of the bed and sits. 

“Okay Kit, you’re okay. You’re in your room. It’s 2020 and whatever happened was just a dream. It’s Cathy, the rest of the queens are here too.” She continues to state facts as a way to remind Kitty of where she is. She’s read about this technique on that computer thing they’d found in the study. It hadn’t worked for herself, but maybe it would work now.

This goes on for a while. Kitty’s screams slowly get quieter as she hears bits of what Cathy says. Cathy watches the girl, who is now whimpering pitifully, glance around at the figures in the dark.

“Is it okay if I turn the light on?”

She waits for a reply, and just as she thought she wouldn’t get one Kitty nods her head so slightly that it was almost missed. Cathy reaches for the lamp and turns it on. Then she squints against the light to get a better look at the girl. Kitty is still whimpering and eyeing them all warily. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asks. Kitty shakes her head no. 

This is more familiar territory for Cathy. Sometimes if the noises from Kitty’s room don’t stop for a while, or if she talks in her sleep and says something particularly worrying, she’ll come over and ask that question. Sometimes Kitty says yes and they’ll stay up discussing the dream and what makes some nights worse. Other times she says no, and Cathy nods and asks another question.

“Would you like some company?”

Tonight the response is a nod accompanied by a small whimper. So Cathy nods back and relaxes a bit. 

“Is it alright if the others stay as well?” Another nod.

“Okay,” Cathy looks back at the others, and realizes that she has no idea what to do from this point. 

Jane brings over some water, she must have gone to get it while Cathy was calming Kitty down. With shaking hands she sets it on the bedside table, letting Kitty reach for it on her own. 

Kitty gets out a scratchy “Thank you.” Then has a small sip.

Anne moves toward the bed and climbs so she’s sitting next to Kitty, careful not to touch her. 

“Is this okay?” She asks quietly, and she receives a grateful nod. 

The other queens all make themselves comfortable in the room as well. Catalina goes to get more blankets and pillows, she doesn’t acknowledge the fact that she has also gotten Anna’s blanket from her room, (Anna is never seen sleeping without it, not even when napping downstairs. She even brings it to breakfast if she’s feeling particularly sleepy that morning.) and neither does anyone else. When she comes back she goes around setting up places for the rest of them to stay in the room. Cathy takes a pillow from the pile Catalina has brought and makes herself comfortable at the end of Kitty’s bed, where she normally lies when keeping Kitty company. When she gets a blanket placed on top of her as well, again, nobody says anything. Anne has taken Kitty into her arms and now the two are cuddling at the top of the bed. Jane makes herself a spot to sleep on the window seat, and Anna takes the floor right next to it. Satisfied with everyone else’s sleeping arrangements, Catalina then takes the last of the bedding and sits in the armchair near Kitty’s desk. 

“Will you be okay in that chair?” Jane asks timidly. She doesn’t want the woman to be uncomfortable, she can always trade with her, or even share.

“This is just fine, I like that I can see you all from here. And it’s quite a comfy chair, I can see why Kit liked it so much when we bought it.”

“Even if that is the most hideous pattern I’ve ever seen.” Anna jumps in. She gets an indignant but scratchy “Hey!” From Kitty as a reply.

“Kitty, that chair is the ugliest chair in all the chair realms, it looks like the Franken-Monster of chairs.” 

“Anne, leave Kitty and her ugly ass chair be.”

“You started it!”

Cathy cuts in from where she’s watching the playful argument unfold, “Kitty, it's okay. Not your fault that Anne read  _ one _ modern book and has started to compare everything to it to prove that she can read.”

That gets a laugh from everyone in the room, except Anne, who is clearly too shocked to reply properly. Cathy doesn’t normally join the fights, but clearly if it's a play fight she can hold her own.

“Well that book is not even considered modern!” Anne stammers back eventually, after the initial shock wore off. 

Jane snorts, “Neither are we.”

The queens laugh again. The playful bickering eventually turned into quiet conversation as they one by one fell asleep. Catalina thought she was the last to go to sleep, but Kitty, with her eyes only slightly open, watches the woman curl up on her admittedly ugly but very comfortable armchair and sighs in contentment. After that, she gets a peaceful sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

When Katherine wakes up in the morning, she realizes she’s being held. In her sleep addled brain she can only think enough to panic and she immediately jumps up. In her haste to get out of the arms that were around her she kicked something off of her bed, which is followed by a bang as whatever it was hits the floor. She looks around wildly for an exit, and just as she’s about to make a break for it she hears someone call her name.

“Kitty!” Someone says from beside her. She turns to see Anna. The modern Anna, not the one she’d known about five hundred years ago. Are they the same? They certainly don’t feel the same. But at the same time the woman is familiar. She visibly relaxes as she realizes that she is in no danger, and the memories from last night come back. The queens slept in here last night. Everything is okay.

“Cathy are you alright?” Jane says from where she jumped up at the noise, now standing two feet from where she slept on the window seat.

Catalina moves to help Cathy stand from the floor at the end of the bed and Kitty is immediately flushed with guilt and embarrassment. “M’ good.” Her words are slurred and groggy from sleep. Kitty rushes to apologize and Cathy looks at her, slightly confused.

“It’s fine, you got scared. It’s not like you  _ meant  _ to kick me off the bed. It might be a problem if you did though.” She finishes the sentence with a bit of a chuckle. Kitty looks mortified at the thought.

“Of course not! I’m so sorry-“ Cathy cuts her off before she could try to apologize any more.

“Kitty! I’m only joking, I know you didn’t mean to. You are forgiven, not that you even needed to apologize, it was an accident.”

After more assurance that Cathy does not need medical attention and that Kitty didn’t hit anything vital, they, including Catalina who was watching the exchange and helping Kitty check Cathy over for injuries, turn their attention to another conversation that is happening in the room. 

  
  


“Are you sure you’re alright? Sorry for stepping on your hand.”

“Jane, it’s really fine. I was more scared by Kits reaction waking up than in pain from you stepping on my finger.”

“I don’t know, her finger looks like it might fall off.” Anne teases.

“Anne, do me a favor and shut up. Jane, I’m okay. Look!” Anna holds up her right hand and waves her fingers around in order to demonstrate. Jane looks hesitant, but nods nonetheless.

After checking to make sure everyone is okay, (Not that she’d admit to caring about anyone’s wellbeing besides Kitty’s or sometimes Anna’s.) Anne is the one to decide they should all make their way downstairs for breakfast.

(“Brunch, actually.” Catalina corrects.

“Whatever, food, come on.” Anne says back. Forgoing the usual argument Catalina correcting her would cause. Though she hadn’t been able to keep the annoyance out of her voice.)

Jane sets about making scrambled eggs and toast. Catalina starts to help her, Jane focuses on the eggs and Catalina toasts at least half a loaf of bread with varying levels of toasted-ness; Jane pretends to find this very helpful. Anna sets the table, then has the great idea of eating in the garden today, so she enlists the help of Anne in bringing everything outside instead. Cathy gets the drinks, coffee for herself and Jane, tea for Catalina and Kitty (who’s voice still sounds scratchy at best and downright painful at worst.) and water and orange juice for Anna and Anne respectively. Kitty wonders, as she helps Cathy bring everyone their cups, when they fell into a routine like this. When was this comfortable breakfast routine established? It happened and the six of them hadn’t even noticed.

Out in the garden there’s easy conversation among the usual queens interactions. Catalina is sandwiched between Jane and Cathy. On Jane’s right is Kitty, acting as a buffer between her and Anna, who is talking excitedly to Anne. At the circle picnic table in the midst of all the flowers Catalina herself had planted (Kitty helped once in a while, Catalina always seemed glad to have the company.) Kitty allows her mind to wander more. At first her thoughts were about their established routine, but then she thought of their groups dynamic. Clearly something has changed. They made a conscious effort not to argue, at least not in front of Kitty or Cathy. The three main argumentative women of the bunch even tried to keep it away from Anna, who expressed no particular discomfort at the arguments but also never gets involved unless she’s dragged into it. Jane had started attempting to mediate the fights between Anne and Catalina, and started to try solving her arguments with Anne on her own. Anne, for her part, is working on her temper, and Catalina has been trying to see the other side of the argument and consider the other person’s feelings.

It was quite refreshing for Kitty to not have to be in the middle of it all keeping the peace as much anymore. And Cathy has been more commonly seen in the living room with the other of her own will in the past two weeks. She’d helped the first three queens do some research on conflict resolution and is happy to see they’ve been taking the internet's advice seriously.

There are other things too. Like how since Cathy is clearly more comfortable around the others she’s been more outspoken. And Jane showing her more caring side to everyone, not just Kitty and Catalina. Kitty has been happier herself and a lot more relaxed. Anna doesn’t seem like she’s tiptoeing around Jane as much. (Kitty wonders if they’ve had a conversation in private.) Anne called Catalina ‘Lina’ and Catalina, though she froze up a bit at first, responded to it without saying not to and so now Anne calls her that when they’re not arguing. By extension Jane has started to call her that as well and then the rest of the queens followed suit. Now all the K/Catherines have nicknames. Just as she thinks of how Catalina got her nickname, Kitty heard it, pulling her from her thoughts.

“Lina just likes the toaster. That’s why there’s so much toast.”

“But surely you didn’t think we’d need this much toast!”

“I happen to  _ like _ toast very much, thanks.” Catalina defends herself against Cathy and Anna.

“Clearly.” Jane says quietly, focusing on her plate. It did not go unheard by the rest of the table though, and they all dissolved into laughter.

“ _ Jane _ !”

“Sorry! Sorry, you were very helpful, we do eat a lot of toast.”

Kitty lets out a laugh that turns into a hacking cough, straining her throat. Anna passes her her water, which Kitty takes gratefully.

“That doesn’t sound good.” Anne states. She stands, saying she’s going to get something to help Kitty’s throat.

It’s not lost on Kitty that they’re helping more than usual, she wonders whether they wanted to help this much before and now that they know it’ll be appreciated they are acting on it, or if they feel the need to out of obligation. If their meeting had come off as an ask for help instead of a genuine interest in seeing the group grow together. She accepts the medicine for her throat when Anne comes back and goes a bit quieter, her insecure thoughts now getting the best of her. This doesn’t go unnoticed, but the others brush it off as Kitty resting her voice.

But when they go back inside, most in good spirits, Kitty lets out a croaky excuse to leave the group saying she’s going to go lie down. Catalina frowns and walks toward Kitty. Before she could even register what she’s doing she places her hand on the teens forehead, checking for a fever. She seems shocked at herself for the action, and her shock lets her hesitate enough to give Kitty time to quietly reassure everyone that she’s fine, just a bit tired. Kitty practically runs up to her room. The queens share a look of confusion. 

“She doesn’t have a fever.” Catalina supplies. She’s still not sure what came over her. She hasn’t done something like that since caring for her Mary, and she certainly hasn’t shown the maternal side of herself since she’s woken up in this century. Perhaps in the last two weeks she’s grown a bit more care for the others than she’d realized. 

“Should someone go after her?” Jane questions the room. They all consider it and find none of them would even know how to have that conversation if they went up after the girl.

“We all had a late night last night, she’s probably just tired.” Anne tries to reassure the group, though she feels uneasy herself. How do they help her if she’s not just tired? They hadn’t really discussed  _ how _ to help each other, just that they would. Either way, Kitty was right, they all clearly function better with communication and support. She hasn’t fought with Lina since three days ago, a much better way to live than an argument three times a day. And she hasn’t snapped at Jane in a week. Instead she’s been patient and listened to everything thoroughly. When she’d started doing that it was clear not everything was meant to be an attack. She’d have to thank Cathy somehow for giving her all those resources on how to let things go. 

Then she stops to think about  _ why _ Cathy has all those self help resources at the ready. Is there something they’re missing in Cathy’s behavior too? Does she have something for Anna’s thing with her blanket? She’d been the one to know how to help Kitty last night; how did she know what to do then? Before Anne can think too hard on that, Cathy herself brings her out of her train of thought.

“How about we let her rest for a bit, and then one of us will go check in to see if somethings wrong later?” Cathy proposes. Anne has to admit that it’s a solid plan, so she and the others agree.

After that, the queens all set about their days as normal. Or as normal as they can manage while they all secretly worry about the youngest of the group. All of them can't help but wonder if they’re doing this wrong. Their trauma isn’t exactly textbook, it's five hundred years old and ugly and painful. How on earth do you help a teenager who regularly dreams about the time her husband had her head chopped off? They’ve all got their own coping mechanisms, and though some are healthier than others they’ve never practiced confiding in one another. 

Anna does the dishes, Anne decides to dry them. The two work in contemplative silence. Catalina walks back through the kitchen and through the back door to the garden. She’s likely going to tend to some of her plants, Anne thinks. She does that when she’s overthinking. Anne doesn’t want to think about why she knows that, so she focuses back in on the task at hand. She wipes down another fork and starts humming. Soon enough Anna joins her humming, but she’s humming a completely different tune. They end up in a competition where they both try to hum louder than the other and they break into a fit of laughter as they finish up with the dishes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, leave a comment if you feel like it! I have a head cannon that all of the queens have random modern things they absolutely love. Lina’s is the toaster. She just thinks it’s neat.


	3. Chapter 3

It takes about an hour and a half before they decide someone should check on Kitty. Jane’s the one that says it, and everyone agrees that yes, she should go check on her. Jane hadn’t meant herself in particular, but she does it regardless. She makes her way up to Kitty’s room, and just as she’s about to knock she hesitates. What if she gets this wrong? What if she accidentally makes everything worse? Or what if she overwhelms the girl with her worrying?

They could also be reading the situation entirely wrong. Kitty could be just fine, taking a nap just like she said she was going to. After a bit of contemplation she eventually does bring herself to knock on the door. 

“Kitty?” 

There’s a pause, Jane swears the world stopped frozen for a moment. She can’t recall ever being this terrified of a teenage girl before. She’d done some scary things in her past life, she stole the notorious husband stealers husband, she married the king even though he’d had his last wife beheaded. She witnessed the beheading and got engaged to him the next day! She’d fought for his neglected daughters right to the line of succession knowing that if she said the wrong thing he might kill her. She’d risen in ranks above her brothers, who were all terrifyingly ruthless and power hungry in their own right. She became queen! Which is scary enough as it is, without the added pressure of maybe being isolated for the rest of her life or suffering the loss of her head if she’s less than perfect.

The point being, she’s seen some shit. But right now, in this life, she can’t imagine anything scarier than Katherine Howard actually opening the door and there being something wrong with her. Having to help her fix whatever it is. Some mother she would have made, she thinks.

Kitty opens the door after what feels like an eternity but in actuality was just a moment. She peeks her head out and looks at Jane, a questioning look in her eyes.

“Yes?”

Jane decides to just cut right to the chase, she’s not sure how to ask this subtly anyways. 

“Are you okay?” She asks, rather bluntly. She internally winces at her own tone, and is quick to try to amend her words.

“I mean like emotionally.” She clarifies. “Lina said you don’t have a fever so we were just concerned that you might be feeling,” she struggles to find a word in the moment and her sentence staggers awkwardly for a moment, before she picks it back up again. “... not good.” She finishes. Too late to go back now.

It’s not like she doesn’t want to help, quite the opposite actually, she wants to help so bad that she’s sure she shouldn’t be the one doing this. She’s no good at these conversations, but she’ll try, for Kitty’s sake at least.

Kitty hesitates for a moment, then opens the door wider and steps aside. “You can come in if you want.”

Jane walks through the door, she’s starting to think they were right in assuming something is wrong with the girl. She hasn’t answered the question thus far. They move to the bed and sit facing each other.

“Why do you care?” Kitty asks before Jane could start speaking again. Jane looks back at the girl confused. She asks for clarification and Kitty speaks again.

“I mean, you’ve never asked that before, why all of the sudden are you checking in on me?” This confuses Jane even more. Hadn’t she been the one to suggest they all start supporting each other in the first place? And it’s not like she didn’t care before this. She thought Kitty was aware she’s pretty much the only person in the house nobody has any issues with. They all care for her well being very much. Perhaps they weren’t showing it well enough before.

“It’s not all of the sudden, I do care about your feelings. I have this whole time. It’s just that now I know that it’s okay if I directly try to help you, instead of giving extra bacon in the mornings and not saying anything.” Kitty seems to contemplate the answer for a moment, then looks back up at Jane. 

“So you actually care about the answer? You’re not just asking because of the agreement?” Suddenly it all makes sense.

“Oh, no, of course not! If anything our agreement gave me the courage I needed to actually try and comfort you rather than hide away and worry. Worrying for you is easy, actually. Worrying for the others might be a little more difficult if I’m honest.” Kitty huffs a small laugh at that last bit, so Jane feels it's safe to continue. 

“Are you actually okay though? It’s okay if the answer is no. Cathy printed this article for me about mental health, the first bullet point was It’s Okay Not To Be Okay. It was pretty helpful. I could let you borrow it sometime if you’d like.”

Kitty laughs again at the slightly nervous ramble. She's feeling better already.

“I was just worried none of you actually cared is all.” Jane is quick to correct her, and Kitty has to grab at her arm to stop her.

“But now I see that you do, and that you’re all just as nervous and confused about this as I am. So now I’m pretty good, aside from the resurfaced trauma from last night that is.” She finishes with a smile, and Jane can’t understand how she’s so open about her emotions in such a concise way like that. Spending the last bit of your life holding in any emotion deemed undesirable had its effects, she supposes. Their last lives really did a number on them.

“Why don’t we go downstairs and talk this out with the others then? That way we’re all on the same page, and I can stop feeling like I’m gonna fuck this up beyond repair.” She smiles wide when she gets Kitty to laugh again. Kitty agrees so they make their way downstairs and see that all the other queens are gathered in the living room, watching TV but not really paying attention to it. They all look up when the two enter the room, clearly waiting for one of them to speak up. 

“I think we need to have a conversation about how much we actually care about each other.” Kitty says.

“And also what exactly we need from each other. I don’t want to be guessing the next time someone runs off.” Jane adds in.

The two queens join the others and begin. First with what was bothering Kitty, then what was making Jane panic, and then they went around saying what they think they might need from each other. As well as reluctantly admitting to caring about the other’s well beings. 

They’ll be alright. Communication is key.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s one more chapter after this, Kitty’s perspective during the hour and a half she was in her room. 
> 
> Leave in a comment!


	4. Chapter 4

Nobody followed Kitty up. This could be because of two reasons. One, they believed her when she said she’s tired. She doubts that, the queens are many things, stubborn, dramatic,  _ observant, _ they’re not stupid. That leaves the other reason. 

_ They don’t actually want to help you. They don’t care. _

Kitty shakes her head to rid herself of that intrusive thought, she didn’t come up here to fall apart, she came up to her room to think. If they really didn’t care, would they have stayed all night last night? Do the others feel like they needed to stay out of obligation? Did they all eat outside in the fresh air for her benefit, or because they wanted to get rid of the stifling tension? She normally goes outside to think, but she’d wanted to be alone so she came up here instead. Have they noticed she goes outside to think?

It must be so selfish to want them to notice things like this, Kitty thinks. Selfish of her to even have wanted them to come up after her. This is worse than before they’d agreed to be there for each other, because now she had a little bit of hope that someone would. She knows she shouldn’t have held out hope like that, it never ends well to have faith in people. But alas, her downfall is always that she believes in people. In her first life, she’d been made a fool of, thinking people cared for her when they didn’t. She’d allowed many people to trick her into thinking they liked her; even that they loved her. 

Kitty doesn’t think that the queens are manipulating her though, they’ve done nothing but listen to and be patient with her since they’d all woken up. (She’s the only one that phrases it like that, waking up sounds a lot nicer than coming back to life. Kinda like she took a long nap.) If anything she’s accidentally manipulated them into thinking they have to care about her more than they initially did. Who is she to demand that kind of attention? They’re practically strangers, she had no right to insist that they do anything but be nice to her in passing by. Kitty wants to slap herself. She hadn’t even realized he accidentally pressured them into being her personal support system. She has a therapist for a reason, they don’t need to do that! She's survived this far into their new life, she can handle not being held at night like a child after a bad dream. (It was a little more than a bad dream. More like a night terror. Cathy had given her a few interesting articles surrounding the topic. When Kitty asked why she had them, Cathy diverted Kitty’s attention to an interesting footnote and discussed the causes of night terrors with her.)

The other queens may be observant and not stupid, but Kitty feels like an idiot. She should tell them they don’t have to do everything they were doing for her anymore. It isn’t fair to them to have to deal with her stuff too, they all deal with so much on their own. Their therapy sessions are only so helpful, they shouldn’t be taking on her burdens as well.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a knock on her door, accompanied by someone saying her name. She’s confused, they decided not to follow her, why would they come up now? She makes her way over her bedroom door and opens it just enough to poke her own head out. She sees Jane standing there, looking incredibly uncomfortable.

“Yes?” She waits a minute before she receives an answer.

“Are you okay?”

-

“And also exactly what we need from each other. I don’t want to be guessing the next time someone runs off.”

The queens look a bit unsure, but they make space for the two to sit comfortably, signaling that they are okay with this conversation taking place. Kitty sits next to Anna on the loveseat, Jane moves to sit next to Cathy on the sofa. Anne is on the other side of Cathy, Catalina is in her armchair.

“Right,” Jane starts, she startles a bit when everyone looks at her, but reminds herself that that is normal when leading a conversation and that this is necessary. “Kitty thought we were only helping her because of our agreement to support each other two weeks ago, I informed her that I genuinely care about her well being, and then we decided to come down here. Now you’re all caught up. Kitty?” She passes the hold on the conversation over to Kitty, who just laughs at Jane’s clear discomfort with being the center of attention. (In a nice way though, not like she’s making fun of Jane. More like she’s laughing fondly  _ with  _ her.)

“I thought you were all feeling obligated to help me, or like I may have pressured you into helping me. I went upstairs to think, not because I was tired. Sorry for lying.”

“That’s understandable, but I can say that I do actually care about you and want you to be okay.” Anne says, there’s enthusiastic agreements all around the room. Kitty can't help the smile that forms. Selfish or not, it feels nice for them to care about her. She manages a small thanks before Anna speaks up.

“We were helping more because we now know we _ can _ , Kitty. Does that make sense?” She says, Kitty nods. 

“Was this morning too much for you? We can tone it down next time.” Catalina offers, Kitty then shakes her head.

“No! This morning was great! I really appreciated everything you all did for me, I just got worried.” Catalina smiles in response. Then they move on, courtesy of Cathy.

“Is there anything you need that we didn’t do?”

“Not that I can think of at the moment,” Kitty replies, “But I’ll let you know if I think of anything. That brings us to the next point though, what do we each need?”

Jane nods, “I have to admit, having to feel my way through helping Kitty and not knowing what was wrong or what to do next was almost painful.”

“I can see how that would be nerve wracking. I was just thinking about how we agreed to help each other, but like,  _ how _ are we gonna do that? We didn’t talk about the how.” Anne says.

Nobody responds for a moment, not even sure where to begin. Eventually, Anne starts the conversation back up again. She doesn’t talk about her daughter, they all already know the deal with that. Only talk about her if Anne brings her up.

“I need a bit of patience, I don’t always react well to people pointing out flaws, and I’ve been trying to get better, but a little bit of patience and maybe a reminder every once in a while to not over react would be appreciated.” She speaks hesitantly, as if her words once spoken will be immediately used against her. That's not what happens though.

“I think we can manage that, anything else?” This comes from Kitty, who is relieved this is going so smoothly. Anne says she can’t think of anything else they don’t know right now, so they move to the next queen. Cathy looks startled to see they’ve moved on to her. 

“Oh, we’re going this way? Alright. I’m not quite sure what I’d need from you all though.”

Catalina inquires about what might hypothetically upset her. So that they know for the future, that is.

“Well, I don’t like talking about my marriages, or my daughter. And I like to feel useful?” The last part comes out more like a question, making the uncertainty clear. Next up is Jane.

“My son, my family, my marriage. And undivided attention.  _ Please  _ move along.”

“Well I for one get very homesick, so if I seem off randomly I might be missing 15th century Germany. Not much we can do there.” Anna starts quickly, taking the attention off of Jane. “In the event that I’m upset by something here, I accept donations in the form of baking.”

“Ooh, I wanna add to mine. I  _ also _ accept donations in the form of baking!” Anne cuts in. It gets Kitty to laugh, which has been what they’ve all wanted since this morning. Nobody gets upset with Anne for speaking out of turn. They all turn to look at Catalina, who has been relatively quiet since they started. The woman never shares anything personal, not even to their shared therapist. (When Anne was totally not eavesdropping at all on Catalina’s session, all three times she didn’t do that, she never heard the Spaniard say one thing that isn't common knowledge already. It can’t be healthy to bottle things up like that. Not that Anne is worried about her.)

“Well,”she begins, she looks and sounds calm, not at all as though she’s about to give the others, bar maybe Cathy, more personal insight than she’s ever given them. “I also get quite homesick. And I miss my daughter frequently. In the event that  _ I  _ am upset with something here, I may start a fight, please be patient with me, I’m trying to get better with this. Other than that, all I can think of is that I don’t like feeling lonely. Is that sufficient?”

“That's more than enough, Lina. Thank you.” The woman nods back at Kitty, Anna stands from her seat. 

“I think we can all say we care about each other even if we don’t want to admit it, yes?” She gets shy nods from the rest of the queens.

“Great, I know I care about you all and want to help in any way I can. Now, why don’t we all get some cake? I’d say we deserve it.” She receives a round of agreement and they all move to the kitchen to have some of the cake Anne baked yesterday. She’s been trying to adjust the recipe every time she bakes one, so that she can bake the ultimate cake.

This is it, Kitty thinks as she serves herself a slice of cake, this is starting to feel like family. She could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a comment!!
> 
> You might notice that I added some conflict resolution and progressive conversation starters in there. They learned them specifically to help in these conversations. This is it for Kitty’s section, next up is Catalina, which is sort of why she went last. I’m not sure how long hers will be but considering how much I love her it might be a little longer than this. 
> 
> Let me know if you want to see any specific dynamics or habits explored in the future.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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